Flat bag package and method for fabricating same



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FLAT BAG PACKAGE AND METHOD FOR FABRICATING SAME Filed y 31, 1958 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 3

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FLAT BAG PACKAGE AND METHOD FOR FABRICATING SAME Filed July 31, 1958 4Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 12, 1961 F. REINHARDT 2,999,627

FLAT BAG PACKAGE AND METHOD FOR FABRICATING SAME Filed July 31, 1958 4Sheets-Sheet 3 7 Fig. 7a

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FLAT BAG PACKAGE AND METHOD FOR FABRICATING SAME Filed July 31, 1958 4Sheets-Sheet 4 2,999,627 FLAT BAG PACKAGE AND METHOD FOR FABRICATINGSAME Fritz Reinhardt, near Herford, Westphalia, Germany, as-

signor to Firma Fr. Hesser, Maschineufabrik-Aktiengesellschaft,Stuttgart-Bad 'Cannstatt, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed July31, 1958, Ser. No. 752,243 Claims priority, application Germany Oct. 18,1957 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-55) There are many and various forms of flat bagand methods of fabricating them. Such bags are used as utility packagesfor receiving most dry, powdered or even granular commodities. Despitethe fact that there are impermeable plastic foils, the use of fiat bagsfor packaging moist or liquid commodities is attended by the unfortunatedisadvantage that such flat bag packages are, on account of theircushion-like form, liable to burst at jointing or closure seams bypressure exerted on the surfaces of the bag, particularly where aplurality of them are stacked one on another, or to be damaged for otherUnited atent causes, with the result that their contents escape or evap-I orate. Thus, special steps have to be taken to safeguard flat bags,and particularly those of thin-walled foil material with connectingmeans, against over-strain, particularly in the case of the packaging ofliquid or semi-liquid materials.

The object of the invention is to provide a flat bag package which givesprotection in a very effective fashion. For this purpose, the bagpackage devised by this invention comprises the combination of a flatbag of preferably thin-walled, yielding and, if desired, transparentfoil material for receiving the commodities to be packaged, togetherwith a protective cover enclosing this flat bag, which cover willpreferably be of a material which is stronger and more rigid than thatof the flat bag, the bag and cover being assembled with the cover firmlyand appropriately connected to part only of the margin of the flat bagand freely surrounding the remainder of the flat bag as a shieldinghollow body, more or less of the shape of the bag. It is within thescope of the invention to shield a plurality of individual fiat bagsagainst external effects by a protective cover of this nature. The flatbag and the protective cover can be connected in any desired andsuitable fashion, for instance by adhesive, welding or heat sealing.

The constructional unit in accordance with the invention, comprising theflat bag and the protective cover, gives a flat bag package in which theloads or stresses exerted on the bag may be sustained and diverted tothe cover when the bag is filled.

To prevent additional stresses on the flat bag being set up inside theprotective cover, provision is made, in accordance with a furtherfeature of the invention, to allow for a certain amount of relativemovement of the flat bag within the protective cover by firmly attachingthe protective cover and the bag together merely at the top or mouth ofthe bag, and at the lateral margins of the bag, the bottom and the sideWalls of the flat bag being, in contrast, displaceable within theprotective cover.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the flat bag package is suchthat, when it is filled, the protective cover has substantially theshape of a stably standing hollow body, for example is of bell-form.

In this event it is prescribed that the bottom of the filled flat bagshall assume a position which is positively spaced from the lower rim ofthe downwardly-open, standing hollow body or cover. A form of protectivecover of this nature very ably ensures practically complete shielding ofthe enveloped flat bag from external effects, Y

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both during the standing or transport of the package. In accordance witha further feature of the invention, an additional reinforcement of thehollow body is secured by marginally stiffening the lower rim of thedownwardlyopen protective cover hollow body, preferably by turning up aflange thereof.

A further substantial advantage of the package according to the presentinvention resides in the fact that it can stably stand and is thereforeparticularly suitable for packaging liquid and semi-liquid commodities.

A flat bag package according to the invention can, as desired, be madeof a common material or dilferent materials. Thus the flat bag can bemade of thin foil and the protective cover of thick foil, pasteboard,paper or the like. It is often satisfactory to use the same or similarmaterials for both items of the package, for the purpose of simplifyingthe fabrication, and where the form and contents of the flat bag allowfor an extenral shield of less strength. Preferably, however, the flatbag according to the invention is made of weldable or heat sealablefoil, for example of plastic such as polyethylene, or a foil which isprovided with a weldable or heat sealable coating, and the protectivecover is made of a relatively stifi material, such as paper, cardboard,metal foil or the like. It is also possible, and provided for in thisinvention, to use weldable packaging material both for the actual flatbag and for the protective. cover. This enables the flat bag to beconnected to the protective cover in very simple and effective fashionby welding or heat sealing.

A particular feature of a package according to the invention involvesthe oblique sealing of one or both upper corners of the package, in sucha way that the welding seam forms a triangular surface sealed area atthis or these parts. An aperture may be formed in one or more of thesetriangular surfaces to enable the filled package to be packed verycompactly by suspension, or to provide a special visible surface, wherea number of packages are suspended for display purposes. The triangularsealed area, being of increased strength, also provides security in thesuspension of the filled packages. Furthermore, if the aforesaidaperture is sufliciently large, the package can be hooked to a finger ofthe hand without pressure being exerted on the filled package, which isan advantage when, for instance, an open package is tobe moved oremptied.

It may be of particular advantage, and assisting the emptying of apackage, to provide in a triangular sealed area a channel which is,preferably, directed towards the apex of the corner and terminatesshortly before the outer edge of the package, which channel is opened byseparation of the corner concerned. This ensures a facile emptying ofthe contents of the package, for example in the case of liquids by asmall tube or straw poked into the channel. A further advantage in thisconstruction is that the mouth of the channel represents, in practice,the highest point of the filled zone, so that the contents do not runout on opening of the package.

In a preferred method according to the invention for fabricating flatbag packages of the form stated, a continuous tube of foil material usedfor fabricating the fiat bags is drawn over a plate-form body whichdetermines the shape of the bags, and during this operation, the foiltube is covered at two opposite sides of this body with strips ofmaterial to form the protective covers and means connecting the foiltube and the cover strips are formed at the two sides of the mouth ofthe bag, whereupon in a subsequent operation the lateral seams of thepackages are formed, and finally the individual packages are separatedby a transverse cut into or between these lateral seams.

Again. the material used for the protective sever strips may be stifierthan the foil material used for the flat bag, without the inventionbeing, however, limited to this feature. The formation of the connectingseams is, again, very simply performed when weldable -or heatsealablematerials are used, or materials which are provided with a weldable orheat-sealable coating.

To provide for particularly advantageous fabrication of the flat bagpackages according to the invention, afurther feature of the latter liesin a method of simultaneously fabricating a double row of the flat bagpackages, in which the endless foil tube drawn over the plate-like bodyis covered on each of the two said opposite sides of this body with twostrips of the material used to form the protective cover, these twoprotective cover strips at each side being spaced to leave a centralstrip of the foil tube free and exposed, longitudinal seams are thenformed at the two sides of each free central strip of foil tube alongthe confronting margins of the pair of protective cover strips toconnecting the latter to the foil, whereupon the central strip of thisfoil tube between the protective cover strips is separated at one sideonly of the tube leaving a double row of flat bag packages attachedtogether at the other side of the foil tube, the lateral seams of theindividual packages are formed transversely of the longitudinal seams,the resulting individual packages are separated from one another by aout between or along the said side seams and, after the individualpackages have been filled, these latter are separated from theconnecting central strip of the foil tube.

A further advantageous method for the simultaneous fabrication of adouble row of flat bag packages according to this invention ischaracterized by the fact that a foil tube fed from a reel, andpreferably of a transparent and weldable or heat-sealable plastic suchas polyethylene, or a material coated with such a Weldable or heatsealable material, is folded by doubling over the two longitudinal sideson to its medial axis to first form two continuous pockets, and that tworows of attached doublewalled flat bags are produced from these pocketsby means of connecting seams, preferably welding or heatsealing seams,extending transversely to said medial axis, the outer walls of theseflat bags becoming protective and supporting covers, which enclose therespective flat bags in bell-fashion when these bags are filled out,cutting or separating the outer folded edges.

To increase the stability of the individual bags, reinforcing strips,e.g. of metal foil, pasteboard or the like, may be introduced betweenthe walls of the folded bag and the sides of the protective andsuspending cover.

.Such strips may also be printed for commercial purposes, or to giveinstructions for use.

A further method of the invention for producing a row of flat bagpackages of the kind of this invention is characterised by the fact thatthere is formed from a running reel of strips of weldable or heatsealable packaging material a flat oval tube for receiving the fillingmaterial, this is covered at its two opposite sides by protective coverstrips and connected to the same by a common, outer marginal seam, aquantity of the commodity to be packaged is charged. into this flattube, and filled bag packages individually surrounded by a bell-likeprotective cover are produced by further connecting seams-disposedtransverse to the longitudinal axis of the tube and connecting the wallsof the latter to one another and also to the cover strips.

Preferably, in accordance with the invention, the strips of packagingmaterial used to produce the flat oval tube are of weldable or heatsealable packaging material, eg polyethylene or the like and, beforeseaming, are brought .into the form of a two-layer strip folded intoV-shape in .cross section, the free longitudinal edges of the foldedlaminated strip being connected together, and in each case with alongitudinal margin of the two protective cover strips by an outerwelding or heat sealing seam.

It is possible for the formation of the sides of the protective cover tofeed in a strip folded in V-shape or, for forming the oval flat tube andthe protective cover, to feed in a single strip folded in W-shape, thefolding tube being formed out of the two inner limbs thereof and thesides of the protective cover from the two outer limbs.

Reference will now be made to embodiments of flat bag package accordingto this invention in relation to the accompanying diagrammaticillustrations which will also serve to explain the performance ofmethods according to the invention for the fabrication of thesepackages, it being understood that the invention is not limited to theseparticular examples.

FIGURES 1 to 3 illustrate a preferred embodiment of a fiat bag packageaccording to the invention, respectively in side view, plan and crosssection on the line X-X of FIGURE 1.

FIGURES 3a, 3b and 3.0 are side views of further embodiments of flat bagpackages according to the invention.

FIGURES 4 and 5 are respectively diagrammatic side and plan 'views, withparts in section, illustrating the performance of a method according tothe invention for producing a double row of flat bag packages.

FIGURES 6 and 7 are a side view and a plan view giving a diagrammaticillustration of a further method of fabricating a double row of flat bagpackages in accordance with the invention.

FIGURE 7a is a section on the line y--y of FIGURE 7.

FIGURE 8 illustrates, partly in section and diagrammatically, means forfilling and simultaneously closing the double row of flat bags formed inaccordance with FIGURES 6 and 7.

FIGURE 9 is a side view corresponding to FIGURE 8, omitting the meansfor closing the packages after they have been filled.

FIGURES 10 and 11 are respectively a side and a plan view of the systemused in a further method of producing a series of flat bag packages inaccordance with the invention.

FIGURES 12, 13 and 14 are diagrammatic sections on the lines 1 and Z z-z and z z of FIGURE 11.

FIGURES 15, 15a, 16 and 16a illustrate, again in diagrammatic section,various starting shapes for the combination, in accordance with thisinvention, of flat bag foils with associated cover foils or coverstrips, FIGURES 15a and 16a illustrating the filled condition.

In the flat bag package illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 3, the fiat bag 1,which is pre-formed with a seamless bottom by superimposing the sideedges, one on another, and is made of thin, weldable or heat-sealablefoil, is connected to the two sides 2 and 3 of a protective cover bywelding together the lateral margins 4 and 5 of the bag and the cover.The seamless bottom 8 of the flat bag 1 is connected to the cover sides2 and 3 at the two lateral margins 4 and 5 only. In making the top orclosure seam of the package, only one margin of the folding bag isfirst, in each case, welded to the corresponding and associated marginof the protective cover, such that the complete filling opening of thebag package remains open for charging purposes. When the filling iscomplete, this seam 6 is also closed by Welding.

During the filling and the closure of the top or closure seam 6, thebellying-out of the bag produces a protective cover in the shape of abell or the like, the surfaces 2 and 3 of the protective cover freelysurrounding the outer faces of the flat bag 1, and major part of thebottom 8 of this bag being raised a certain amount above the bottom edge7 of the protective cover 2, 3 (see FIGURES l and 3). Thus, only theside scams 4, 5 and the top seams 6 of the flat bag 1 and the protectivecover 2, 3 are connected together, whilst the side faces of the bag 1and the bottom'8 thereof largely hang free and movable inside thebell-like cover 2, 3.

To ensure that this will stand stably on a surface it may be flanged, asat 9, for stiffening purposes. The shape of bag and protective coverillustrated may be varied as desired.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 3a, 3b and 3c, at least oneupper corner 80 is sealed oif obliquely so that the welding seam 6 formsat this part a form of triangular surface 81. The other upper corner 82can easily be furnished with a similar triangular surface 83. One orboth triangular surfaces 81, 83 may have an aperture 84 for theengagement, suspension or handling of empty or filled packages; in thedrawings an aperture has only been shown incorporated in the corner 80.

In FIGURE 3b, the upper corner 82 of the package has, instead of anaperture, a duct 85, which runs towards the apex of this corner, andterminates shortly before the outer edge of the package at the corner.

FIGURE 30 indicates that a package according to the invention may be ofupwardly tapered form.

To empty the package, -a cut need only be made at 86, and this producesan adequate opening for the complete discharge of the contents of thepackage. In the embodiment of FIGURE 3b, the severing cut 86 is madethrough the duct 85.

FIGURES 4 and 5 diagrammatically illustrate the way in which a doublerow of flat bag packages according to FIGURES 1 to 3 can be formed bymass-production methods.

A continuous or endless tube 11, made from a thin and weldable foilstrip, for example of polyethylene, is drawn from a reel smoothly over ashaping body 14 which is mounted in freely-floating fashion on a bar 12.Double rollers 26, 27 and 28, 29 are arranged respectively at the upperand lower sides of the body 14, these being in the form of weldingrollers and serving to unite to the foil tube 11 strips 19, 20 and 21,22, which run off supply reels 15, 16 and 17, 18 respectively and areused to form the protective cover.

The connection is, however, only made at the margins 24 and 25 of theprotective cover strips, leaving central strips 33, 37 of the foil tube11 free and exposed between these margins 24, 25 at the upper and lowersides of the body 14. One of these central foil tube strips, for examplethe upper strip 33, is continuously separated by cutting wheels 30, 31(see FIGURE 4), so that the parts of the material which are weldedtogether at the margins 24, 25 are left held together only by thecentral strip 37 of the foil tube 11 running along the underside of body14.

The packaging strips so prepared then run between welding jaws 34, 35which weld together the lateral margins 4, 5. The two rows of flat bagpackages formed in this way are separated from one another between themargins 4, 5 by stamped perforations 36, so that the individual packagescan be filled still attached or after preliminary separation, and thefilling openings then closed by the seam 6.

In the method according to the invention illustrated in FIGURES 6 to 9,a foil tube 11, preferably of a transparent, weldable or heat-scalableplastic such as polyethylene, as is commercially well known as lay-flattubing, is withdrawn fiat from a supply reel 10. Two continuousdouble-walled pockets 40, 41 are first formed by turning over the twolongitudinal margins of this foil tube 11, and from these a double rowof fiat bags 43 is formed by means of welding seams 42 transverse to thelongitudinal axis of the tube 11. The filling openings of the bags 43are arranged along the medial axis of the foil tube 11 at specificintervals (see FIGURES 7 and 7a).

After the cutting off or separation of the outer tubular parts of thefolding edges 45, this forms the protective covers for the flat bagswhich, as illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 3, are distended into bell-likeshape after filling of the individual bags.

Where the foil material is very thin, to increase the metal foilcardboard or the like may be introduced into 6 the spaces between thewall of the bag and the surface of the protective and suspending coverat the two sides. Such strips may be printed to indicate the contents orthe origin of the goods.

The packages can be filled either by successively charging the rows ofthese packages,'still attached, and the individual packages thenseparated from one another and from the central strip 51 to theindividual bags may be separated along the punch lines or perforations46 before charging. Again it is optional whether the central strip 51 ofthe tubular foil 11 is first left to hold the individual packets 46together as a set, or whether it is separated from the individualpackages before the filling is performed.

FIGURES 8 and 9 illustrate the way in which the rows of flat bags of thelongitudinal pockets 40, 41 may be simultaneously filled and closed. Therows of bags are hung and drawn, with the filling openings upwards, overa bar 47 and the closure seams 48 closed by welding rollers 49, 50 afterfilling.

In the method of fabricating a row of flat bag packages in accordancewith the invention, diagrammatically illustrated by FIGURES 10 to 14, adouble layer strip 61 of the material for forming the flat bags, foldedinto V-shape, runs from a reel 60. This material preferably comprisesweldable or heat-scalable polyethylene. Strips 64, 65 unwound from reels62, 63 are applied against the outer faces of this strip 61 (see theillustration in FIG- URE 12 of the section Z1Z1 of FIGURE 11).

The composite strips 61, 64, 65 formed in this way then run under a pairof welding rollers 66, 67, which join together the free margins of thesaid strips, as illustrated at the left hand side of FIGURE 13 at 68, soas to form an oval tube which has cover strips extending outwards fromboth sides (see FIGURE 13, i.e. the section on line Z2-Z2 Of FIGURE Theoval tube formed in this way can now be filled continuously or stepwiseby a feed hopper 70, the funnel 71 of which projects into the tube 61,before it is closed, above the welding rollers 66, 67 and extendsapproximately to a pair of welding jaws 73, 74 which forms thetransverse seam 69 at regular intervals. The walls of the tube 61 arefirmly welded by these transverse seams 69 both with one another andalso with the cover strips 64, 65, thereby forming a series of coveredstably-standing bag packages which can be separated into the requirednumber of pieces by perforation or cutting along the transverse seams69.

As can be seen from FIGURES 15 and 15a, instead of using two separatecover strips 64, 65, use may be made of a single V-form strip 75 whichcovers the V-form strip 61 of material for the flat bags at the two openedges of the latter.

In FIGURES 16 and 16a, a single strip 76 folded into the shape of a W isused to fabricate the packaging strip in accordance with the invention.The production and filling of the row of packages formed from the stripsof FIGURES 15, 15a and 16, 16a will be immediately obvious to atechnician from the preceding explanation, and does not need to bepointed out in more detail.

I claim:

A bag unit comprising, in combination, a flat bag of sheet material, acommodity in said bag, said bag including lateral margins, a protectivebell-like cover surrounding said flat bag and forming a stably-standinghollow body open at the bottom and connected with the fiat bag only atan upper seam and at said lateral margins, the protective bell-likecover being of a stiffer material than the flat bag, the upper seamterminating at one end in a triangular sealed area provided with anaperture, the upper seam further terminating at its other end in atriangular sealed area having therein a channel extending from theinterior of the flat bag towards the apex of a corner of said bag.

(References on following page) References Cited in the file of thispatent UNITED STATES PATENTS Royal Aug. 4, 1942 8 vStokes V Sept. 21,1943 'Salfisberg Oct. 11, 1949 Snyder May 22, 1951 Kindseth Aug. 11,1959 FOREIGN PATENTS France Oct. 8, 1956

